Restructuring north‐south relations: ACP‐EU development co‐operation in a liberal international order

This article will examine the character of relations between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in the wake of the new EU‐ACP Partnership Agreement, signed in June 2000, and which replaces the longstanding Lomé Convention. The article views development cooperation as encapsulating particular political and economic relationships rather than constituting some kind of technical or apolitical endeavour. The origins of EU‐ACP co‐operation are placed within the specific context of decolonisation and the rise of a new form of inter‐state relations between North and South. However, the nature of North‐South co‐operation has been transformed in the period since the 1970s when Lomé was first signed. Consequently the new agreement (and the prior changes to the Lomé Convention) need to be understood in the context of the wider restructuring and liberalisation of North‐South relations. This has led to far‐reaching changes to both the aid and trade elements of European Union‐Africa relations.